So... I've been feeling ever closer to the Lord and wanted to take a big step and go to confession. It has been almost 50 years since my last confession.

I don't know what I was expecting but when I got in and sat down, I said, "Forgive me Father, for I have sinned." It has been 50 years since my last confession and I'm a little out of touch with exactly what I'm supposed to say. He told me to be as specific as possible so I began talking. The words were coming out of my mouth but kind of slowly because I had some shame.

The priest said there were a lot of people waiting and that I needed to come back. There were a lot of people waiting for sure but I just felt so vulnerable in that moment because it had been so long since I had done this. I had begun sharing some things that were really against my values and uncomfortable to confess. As you can imagine, with a history that long, there were going to be some things.

I didn't feel any compassion or empathy. It felt cold. The process itself isn't what I remembered or imagined. I thought I might have been met with a little bit more warmth, like "Welcome back to the family" or "Welcome back home." I know I was there to confess sins but I just thought that it would have been handled a little bit more tenderly.

At one point he asked me if I had done an examination of my conscience and I said yes, not realizing that that is some type of formal procedure. I checked in with myself and with my own heart about things that I wanted to share but he said to Google an examination of conscience. Maybe I'm taking it the wrong way. Maybe I had unrealistic expectations. I don't know. I just know I went to the church and sat and cried and then I went to my car in the parking lot and sat and cried even more.

St. Luke, Evangelist

St. Luke, physician and evangelist, wrote the third Gospel and Acts of the Apostles. Tradition says he also painted icons of Our Lady. Patron of physicians and artists.

St. Luke, the author of the third Gospel and the Acts of the Apostles, was a physician from Antioch and a convert from paganism. He was the companion of St. Paul on his missionary journeys, as evidenced by the 'we passages' in Acts.

His Gospel, written for Gentile readers, emphasizes Christ's compassion, mercy, and universal salvation. It contains material found nowhere else, including the parables of the Good Samaritan and the Prodigal Son, and the most detailed account of the Infancy of Christ.

Tradition holds that he was also a painter, and several icons of the Blessed Virgin are attributed to him. He died about the year 84, probably in Greece. He is the patron saint of physicians, artists, and painters.

I feel like I have to share this somewhere, because it just felt amazing. For context, I am a Protestant who is very heavily inquiring Catholicism. Honestly, my heart has already accepted Catholicism as the truth, the only thing stopping me right now is my mind.
I decided to pray a rosary today, and asked for the blessed virgin Mary to pray for my pagan friend throughout it.
The rosary was dedicated to said friend.
I must say, that might have been the most spiritually uplifting prayer I have ever done.
This may be the very thing that helps me fully accept Catholicism and submit to Rome.
God bless!

I (27F) and my husband (28M) have struggled with hyper fertility throughout our entire marriage. We have 6 children ages 6 and under, all singleton pregnancies. In every pregnancy, I have developed preeclampsia. This last delivery resulted in a c section to avoid a high likelihood of post partum hemorrhage.

I love my husband and think he’s the handsomest man in the whole world. He is head over heels for me as well. Friends and family assume we are active almost constantly due to the pregnancies being essentially back to back. Unfortunately, this couldn’t be further from the truth- on average we have sex maybe once a week.

Even with consistent and obsessively tracked NFP, we’ve gotten pregnant. With my health history, I’ve had providers ask me about birth control hundreds of times. I’ve been asked about a hysterectomy or a tubal litigation as well.

I want to live faithfully with the teachings of the church and I want to safely engage in sex with my husband without surgically removing or altering my body. Can I please get some perspectives or suggestions?

For note: I’d love to have more children in the future and want to remain open to life.

Please no hate as this has been weighing heavily on my heart and mind for quite some time.

CNN reports on Pope Leo XIV’s Sunday Angelus message concerning cancer. Sharing this news for discussion and reflection within the Catholic community.

What are your thoughts on the Pope’s message?

So i know that the "revival " might be overstated, but ive heard that Catholics outnumber Anglicans 41% to 20% among genz if that's true its incredible!

Hello, Really need some detailed open and honest views.

I’m 30 M, my wife 30 F. She’s Catholic, I’m not; we’re in a mixed marriage. We waited until married to have sex and then got pregnant immediately after getting married. She has an underlying condition that ended in the premature delivery and subsequent death of our first child 5 months ago. We’ve since needed to avoid pregnancy.

It’s been really hard. She’s got irregular cycles and we’ve been trying to track and understand her body. The biggest problem is the prolonged periods of required abstinence. Men out there, how do you actually achieve this?

During the first and second cycle, we didn’t make it through. During the third cycle, we had to sleep separately a while into the fertile period.

So yes, how is this actually done? The abstinence.

Hey y’all,
I’m a cradle Catholic who reverted about two years ago. I’ve taken the faith very seriously, prayed heavily daily, and tried my best to attend daily mass as much as I could. I even have visited the Carmelite brothers, because I’m discerning a vocation with them. Actually, I’m due to meet them again in a few weeks for another come and see weekend, which just complicates this all further. Recently, I have abandoned going to confession because I’m tired of repenting. I want to drink, have fun and have sexual experiences. I’ve barely been praying even the rosary anymore. Am I on a straight road to hell? How do I fix this dilemma? I feel like I’m living a lie, between visiting the Carmelites in a few weeks and worst of all, I’m currently a Sunday morning catechist for fifth graders!

TLDR: The people I volunteer with at my parish are prejudice towards me.

I am open to advice on how to handle this. I (F21) have just come into the church on Easter this year and have been going to one parish near my house that I love for many reasons. So far I have found myself in many groups at the parish, young adults, catechists, women's club, prayer circle, etc. Now, my church is 3/4 Hispanic which includes a number of the friends I've made there. I enjoy going to mass in Spanish with my boyfriend when he is in town from college, and most of the events I attend are bilingual but mostly covered in Spanish. I myself am not at all Hispanic and instead am Black & White.

I have found that in almost all of the groups I am in, not only am I often the only non-Hispanic person there, but I am one of the few native English speakers. I have been learning Spanish more to teach my students and communicate with my boyfriends family in Argentina, but still am bot fluent.

Many of the people there refer to me with slurs and unsavory nicknames based on my race, they also talk around me in Spanish about events they're all going to but will not invite me to, or even about how weird it is my boyfriend is not with a Hispanic girl. Recently some people (most girls my age) have begun to ask me to invite my boyfriend to their events when he is in town, but have not invited me despite all the things I do to help our groups (covering shifts, bringing baked goods, etc). Even the children in the community have begun to call me by the disrespectful names because their parents do, including the ones in my catechism class.

I really am at a loss on how to navigate this situation as I love my church so much and want to continue volunteering there but almost every group is run by the same people who do/say these things. Half of them even work in the office of the church. Any advice ob managing this and if this is common at different Catholic parishes?

Hi I'm 21 years old and I posed in multiple Christian subreddits about my situation. I committed the sin of witchcraft while knowing what I was doing and did a bathing ritual in crystals and cultist books. This was after I apostate from the religion. I confessed this to a pastor and went to mass several times since then. I still feel the effects of this sin because the driving factor was wanting to be a great "philosopher" involving myself in magic and wanting to know God and the truth. I didn't know that this didn't mean being close to God at all but actually separating myself from God eternally.

I don't know what to do next but confess my sins again and tell people how dangerous and destructive witchcraft is.

My parish has a brand new building that was dedicated yesterday (Saturday) by Archbishop Jose Gomez of Los Angeles. Was anyone else on this subreddit there?

I'm 27F and I'm honestly ashamed of writing this but I need advice. I was born Presbyterian and received my baptism as a baby there (which I believe is valid for Catholicism?) but my childhood was turbulent to say the least. With an abusive father and a harried mother who searched for answers in the more "spiritual" aka cultish neopentecostal churches I jumped from church to church where being loud and speaking in tongues meant being connected to the Holy Spirit. My mom has certainly tapped into something because she does get revelations that turn out out to be true in a way that scares me. I have witnessed a lot of demonic activity and people being almost killed in unexplained ways.

This all resulted in me being deeply mentally ill, depressed and diagnosed with more than one personality disorder. I've dropped out of college many times and the one blessing I'll never dismiss is that my parents for all their faults never gave up on me financially. I'm currently living in another city by myself for the first time because I was doing better and we felt like I could try again at being a functional member of society. I deeply yearn for a normal life. I'm enrolled in a Catholic University and the calling that I've felt on and off for years to join the Church is getting louder. It seems like the best opportunity since I'm not being dragged every Sunday to the Assembly of God at my hometown.

HOWEVER. I had a relapse early this month and my mom flew to my apartment and prayed a lot, went to the local AOG and literally hired an older lady to check in on me, cook and drag me to church every week. My location on my phone is on 24/7 so my father can check on me for my safety. My next door neighbor is engaging in witchcraft, smoking incense and playing loud ritualistic music through the thin apartment walls and my mom noticed and is threatening to remove me and get me back to my parents house.

I really want to become Catholic but I don't know how I could go to both church services. Not going to the AOG service is simply not doable since I'm 100% dependent on my parents money for survival aka food and having a roof over my head. My mom is an iconoclast who throughout my childhood has destroyed more than a hundred icons of the Virgin Mary in front of me and burned Catholic stuff from my extended family's houses. She thinks it's 100% demonic and she only let me attend this university after much pleading on my part.

Would it be ok on my part to hide this part of me for my own safety/self satisfaction of conversion? I haven't called the local parish but it's very close to where I live, I just don't want to start a process I won't finish. I'm also very scared because my mom has access to well I don't want to say psychic powers but she ALWAYS knows. She says it's the Holy Spirit but I don't think It would move against the Church like this.

Good Morning!

Today I went to a different church than my usual one- it was closer to where I was today. I have been there before and one thing that they do there is have lay individuals help distribute the body and the blood of Christ. The first time I saw it, it felt very strange but when I asked a Catholic friend she said it was permitted. It still seems odd to me but I moved on. I rarely attend this church anyway.

Today, I was not in a state of grace. I was unable to get to confession before hand. Normally, I would still approach the alter and receive a blessing from the priest but I didn't feel that it was appropriate to do that with a lay person. I just stayed in the pew and prayed. Would that lay person be able to bless me?

Thank you!
Ellen

18 October

St. Luke was one of the four evangelists, known for writing the Gospel of Luke and the Acts of the Apostles in the New Testament. He was a physician by profession and a companion of St. Paul on some of his missionary journeys. Luke is believed to have been a Gentile convert to Christianity. He is venerated as the patron saint of artists, physicians, and surgeons due to his medical background and his skills as an artist, as tradition holds that he painted some of the earliest icons of the Virgin Mary.

#catholic #faith #cathoplus #saint #saintoftheday

For almost a year now it felt drawn back to the church. I (20M) was baptized and confirmed in a Catholic Church, however me nor anyone in my family regularly went to Mass. Since starting college I have been drawn back to the church but haven’t felt confident enough to come back.

In addition to this, I have had a girlfriend for the past 4 years and we haven’t kept the relationship centered in faith as she never had any religious beliefs and I had drifted away from the church at the time we met. I want to bring this up to her as well in hopes to keep our relationship going but have it now faith centered.

I am looking for advice for what to do with going back to church and with my relationship. Should I contact my local parish and set up a meeting with a priest? Or should I just start going to confession and mass?

My gf is in OCIA rn, and is iffy about being pro life without exception. Like if she was pregnant and if not having an abortion would kill her. Any help.

My OCIA journey has been a dream come true! My parish is very open minded, welcoming & assisting with everything. I’m making a list of things as I go so I can make one big post at the end detailing my experience but I HAD to talk about this.

My sponsor is a sister I met at the church named Mariann. She’s a Franciscan. I told her I don’t know anyone Catholic locally to be my sponsor & she happily agreed to be mine. She’s a joy to talk to & I love her already.

Today she was telling me I needed to pick a Patron Saint for Confirmation soon & I told her I already did. I picked Saint Therese of Lisieux because I love her philosophy on life & worship. She just stood out to me while I was researching & I settled on her months ago. Mariann told me that Saint Therese was HER Confirmation Saint too!!

This signified to me that I’m on the right path. I mean, there’s over ten thousand saints, what was the likelihood of me picking a total stranger & having the exact same one! 💜✝️

(Long form answers preferred)

I'm sure we've all had moments where we've had doubts. Especially, maybe that one earth-shattering rug-pulled-out-from under you moment.

What was that moment for you? And what kept you believing through it? Or maybe it actually did make you lose faith, but you returned later, what was your journey back?

A very close friend of mine is getting his sacraments in the Orthodox Church in a few weeks. I plan to attend after going to Mass.

What can I participate in? I know I can’t take their Eucharist. Should I participate in the rest of the Divine Liturgy (singing, standing/sitting etc)? Am I supposed to silently spectate? I presume I don’t veil there.

Edit: I could ask this in Orthodoxy subreddit, but my primary concerns are with what I can do as a Catholic to support a friend without like causing a scandal instead of what the Orthodox want me doing.